The Barton House ACORN Accountability Meeting came to an abrupt end as Shaban Ali, an ACORN secretary, announced: “They are removing things from people’s properties… so we need to head to Barton House”.
The protest had started at 10, the residents and ACORN officers were addressing the issues around the sudden evacuation of around 400 residents, 100 of them children, from the council block.
Wesley Bear the ACORN communications officer says that council officers told residents staying at the Holiday Inn “not to engage with ACORN, not to speak to us, and to not attend City Hall today for this protest”
When the news about a possible removal of their belongings came in an hour later, people began to stream out of city hall in fear of their things being taken away from their previous homes.
Upon arrival at Barton House, confused and upset residents demanded answers from police who were already present at the house. Being denied access to the property the situation quickly escalated.
The Green councillors Jenny Bartle, Lisa Stone and Barry Parsons soon arrived to the scene and an email was sent out to assure residents that belongings were only being removed from three flats who had given permission to the council to remove their things.
However when Marian Abdi, a concerned single mother of four asked the council for assurance that her belongings would not be removed she stated the response was “she didn’t give me guarantee” and she was told that the house officer would talk to her in private.
The councillors who arrived at the scene were not able to provide residents with the answers they needed. In particular people were asking for solutions to their current situations in hotels.
Fathia Mohammed, mother of three tells us about her situation “the milk bottle I have to warm it up in the kettle, … I wash all my baby bottles in the toilet as well”.
Nuh Sharif speaks of trying to bring food in the hotel that his children can eat. He says “they threw out the food, and they brought back to me the empty container”.
The residents remain concerned but have been offered the chance to speak to the housing officer this afternoon.
